[256] in ad-lib
Re: Stripping 87x fields
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sbyrd@MIT.EDU)
Fri Mar 31 11:30:48 1995
From: sbyrd@MIT.EDU
To: ad-cat@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 31 Mar 1995 10:16:48 EST."
<9503311516.AA08003@lauren.MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 11:30:27 EST
I don't think it's necessary to clear stripping 87xs with the opac
group. While it's true that not having the 87xs in the catalog will
mean no cross references at all until we get authority control, the
fact of the matter is, as Howard has pointed out to me, they are not
true cross-references anyway; the system is treating them as added
entries and displaying them on separate lines in retrieval screens.
This is more misleading than helpful. In addition, they are certainly
not consistently used, and are misleading in that sense as well. Plus
I'm not convinced their presence won't interfere with true authority
control, once/if we get it. Better to have no fake cross references
and wait until we have true ones. If their absence highlights the
need for them, all the better--the more people we have understanding
the need for and thus demanding true authority control, the better.
Plus, if we keep the 87xs, there's a danger of someone saying, well
we've at least got those, so why do we need to have authority control
in addition? Or, we've got those, they'll do for now, so let's
de-prioritize authority control. Ultimately, I think it's our
decision anyway. Let's make the decision and stick with it.
--Sam
